Whirlpool Revanchism
by Harvey Bautista
Summary: Namikaze Kushina, Uzumaki Naruto, a second chance at family, justice, and vengeance.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Author does not claim any ownership over Masashi Kishimoto's intellectual property

Scene 00: Homecoming

The maw of a hive organism, the main portal of Konohagakure lay haphazardly open, a bustling artery of pedestrian traffic of residents, farmers, and traders. The people flocking in and out of the hidden metropolis hurried, harried by a mild, yet persistent rain immediately upon leaving the city. Not quite a downpour, but long since overcoming a drizzle, it had begun to muddy the road to where travelers ignored the well-worn ruts and opted for rockier trails around the depressions on the main road. No surprise on this downpour, the pale gray clouds had been slowly plodding towards the village since sunrise on lazy currents at what some elders quixotically termed a leisurely walk through Fire Country. 'Celestial garden-tending?' came to mind.

It was a refreshingly lukewarm shower, enough for a person to become moist if out for several minutes, but an hour or more before the frail gambled on catching cold. With the consistency of a mist or spray some noticed. Tranquil inconvenience at most, bearing on a calm azimuth taking it right down that road. The only inconsistency, first noticed by the leaves of the trees, was that the water tasted of the sea.

Until that walking pace it took stopped, that mild mist ceasing right at the foot of the gates, hesitating, before pulling back, continuing to rain misty-spray perpendicular to a roadside inn, 'hidden village gasthaus' so to speak; turning inane banter about weather _into_ inane banter about portens, omens, and ill-tidings oh-my.

"I know the rain hates my land," a pineapple-haired blonde quipped from where she dangled her legs off the veranda, bared shins exposed to the mist, giving a dubious smirk as she swung her legs from where it rained and where the rain had back off from, "but," she continued in a dusky, tone with wariness creeping in, "I have never seen it snub an entire city." She gave a cocked look to her companion. A non-commital shrug was all she got in return. "That's it, lazy?" She sniffed. "Too obvious."

"Nice clouds though," he remarked. Facing her from where he sat against one of the veranda's posts, he drew wind in from pursed lips. "With everybody still wound up, Temari, more discretion or overwhelming force is what it will take for them to hurt us again."

She just grunted. "Fluffy and white are nice clouds, _that_... its not even gray enough to be depressing, just a mocking tease." She took another sideways glance at him. "You know, you didn't have to see me out."

"Spent too long at the hospital as is. Need to take a step back, plus..." he trailed off, his eyes breaking away from her gaze as hers focused in on the subtle pitch in the tempo and pace of his speech.

"Plus?" she mimicked.

"_Thanks_." It came out hesitant, slow, a drawl. But what caught her attention was how his eyes came to focus again on her.

She took a deeper breath. "Impressive. You insisted on seeing me out of the village to say one word."

"I mean it." he replied deadpan, no snark nor snide to his voice, no evasion of intention.

It was her turn to look away. "Strange times coming by **Cloud**-**boy**. How inconvenient..." she trailed, finding strategic deflection as she stared at a parasol-toting traveler walking up to the steps of the guest house. The woman tapped her sandals up against one of the supporting posts, before tipping down her parasol, patterned with a hollow spiral, aqua wash against an indigo field. Cerulean irises met a storm-gray glance as the traveler caught her gaze.

"Afternoon, miss." The newcomer remarked noncommittally, shimmying herself onto the deck with her knees. She loosened the straps to her satchel and the frame slide away from her back to rest on the varnished pine planks.

"Sakura?" Shikamaru questioningly asked as he had blink before looking at the woman again. There's a resemblance he thought to himself, superficially at least.

"Don't be rude, Nara," she told him. "Her forehead is narrower than her shoulders." _And, she doesn't have the bust of a washboard, _she didn't add. She clicked her tongue. Taller than me, that's rare, she thought. Body type underneath that coat says slim… for old, she mentally appended. Good skin, face is more expressive than that strawberry siren, but the hair is a vivid rouge. Cherry instead of strawberry then, you've known her longer than I. Temari straightened and drew her legs together, giving the woman a nod. "You'll have to excuse him. Lazy _and _uncouth," she coolly remarked.

The woman just settled her hands behind her and nodded. "You called him Nara, right?" The bait not being taken, she continued. "Par for the course as far as the men of that family go."

Reserved as she typically composed herself, the backhanded comment drew a smirk out of the Kaze-hime. Flirting with the idea of an accomplice in roasting the deadpan snarker cum slacker-genius, she decided to be courteous to the stranger. "Desert Rose, Temari," she introduced herself jocularly. "Par for the course over there is Shikamaru." Said three-hole dogleg simply looked down.

"Namikaze Kushina." The red-headed woman replied in kind. As a solicitous innkeeper came by, wearing an obnoxiously amber robe for a man of his age, complete with a matching zig-zap broad stripe that matched his stubborn refusal to admit defeat to male hair-loss, she quipped, "I'll have Jasmine tea with cups for six, with a serving of rice cakes, anything that you have ready for a hungry me to devour, please." Puzzled, the man just returned inside.

"Coming home?" inquired Shikamaru, feigning and failing at polite interest. He injected a curious tone into his voice. "You must be referring to my dad, but we've never met."

"Oh, we have, Widdle-Cwoud," she replied in her own measuring way, gauging to see his eyes open at the use of one of his mother's insufferable nicknames that women emasculate the men of their households with. Before he could catch his gaffe and close his hanging mouth, she continued, "of course, you were only about," she paused, gesturing midway up her side from the deck, "this high when we stood you up, cutie."

Wrestling with the feeling to trust her or to pinch himself out of what could be a sadistically trite genjutsu, Shikamaru just said. "You have me at a disadvantage."

The auburn-haired 'familiar' stranger just remarked reminiscingly, "as did you and your mother when I practiced diaper-changing on you." Both his and Temari's ears picked up on the change of her voice at the end of her statement just before the smirking mask replaced a sad glimmer in Kushina's ashen eyes.

"You must not have been back here for a long time," Shikamaru commented as the host came back with Kushina's order.

"Neither do I have plans to take up residence here again," Kushina slyly commented. "Please," she indicated the food and patted her stomach. "I just stopped here for a pick-me-up, not a pig-me-out before I went into town."

A little taken aback, and her guard returning from the brash –though amicable- manners of Mrs. Namikaze before them, Temari just smiled. "Ma'am," she began.

"Miss." Kushina interrupted with just enough steel wrapped up in a silken voice.

"Miss Namikaze," Temari quickly corrected herself, "thank you…" Shikamaru strategically mumbled his thanks out from behind a triangular cake of sweet, sticky rice jeweled with plum. "But the amount of cups, are your companions behind you?"

With a mock-theatric sigh, Kushina said, "No, traveling alone, but I imagine some old friends will be dropping by." She made a show of looking into the inn, then the woods, finally out to the road and raised her voice. "Soon… maybe, no?" She shrugged, sitting back down. "Well, that makes things simpler for my errand."

"Shopping?" edged out Temari.

"I wish," sighed Kushina, knowing by measuring both the blonde's and the boy's body language that the innocent roundabout traveler routine was no longer cute. The woman fidgeted. "No elegant or dignified way to say this, young Nara," she told him. "Circumstances in this town…" she began in a lecturing voice.

While Temari could appreciate the woman's humor, Shikamaru could only find it… troublesome.

"Long story short, young woman, I went through some years I'm not very proud of, and likewise very angry…" Kushina's voice changed from patronizing to bitter, "at myself, my husband –I miss him so- and that town. But, recently circumstances have changed to where I can have my little boy back again. Custody battle, so to speak."

Enthralled, yet annoyed at the child-abridged speech she was getting –Temari would prefer to be lied to than for certain truths and details being omitted- she just bade the woman to go on. "When did this happen…"

"Well, around a baker's dozen years ago, you see-" was all Kushina could say before Temari and Shikamaru immediately rose. Finally noticing that the rain had died and the sun had actually scattered the clouds some minutes back into Kushina's tirade, it was only now that the chunin genius and the desert rose felt killing intent. But, it wasn't from the woman serenely beginning to pour tea into the three empty cups. She tsk-ed the two in a faux-motherly manner, before addressing the air. "Come now everybody, it's rude to sulk away in the shadows from a friendly tea gathering." The woman waited, and began again. "Two ways to handle this. Civilly," she indicated the tea, "or the no-hospitality method."

Holding suspense of disbelief, jaded, or experienced, Shikamaru had trouble pinning down, it was little surpise to see a familiar trench coat-fishnet attired kunoichi drop into place asides the supposed Konoha prodigal along with two white-fox masked individuals attired in extra gear. _ANBU _is after you? He blinked for a moment as Anko likewise measure Kushina before tentatively taking a sip of the Jasmine. "Namikaze," he blurted out. _They are all _

_extinct?! The last died during… during… _Temari saw a tightening in his jade eyes. _The name is familiar… she noticed. "Minato…" _she mouthed questioningly to the contemplative Nara.

Anko only gave Shikamaru a look accompanied by a waggling of her finger to her lips before returning a predatory observation onto the newcomer. "Old time sakes out the window and all, how did you survi-" she caught herself. "Whatever happened, why now?"

All the verpine-mannered vixen could receive in reply was a shrug. "Because I sense opportunity," Kushina remarked, Temari noticing the iron core in the woman coming unsheathed from the flirtatious personality. "An opportunity to correct what has been done to my family, not some town who betrayed their savior and his blood."

"And what convinces you that the council would even let you accomplish that?" Anko pointed out, as the two ANBU that stood upon the roadside continued their stoic guard.

Kushina shared a look between the two adolescents before eyeballing Anko. Her right hand reached into her left sleeve and hitched as it pulled back, the hand remaining in the sleeve. "With the most overpowering weapon to lay down even the mightiest Kage!" she exclaimed, slate eyes brightening into a tarnished luster of silver. As the cackling began, Shikamaru scooped his left arm through a dumbfounded Temari and leapt clear into the lee of a tall pine, shadow-walking it to the wood line on the opposite side of the road, whilst the two ANBU likewise leapt clear, the first channeling air, the second earth as elemental chakra's began to be manifested.

"I can take care of myself!" She screamed. "I saved your ass, Widdle-Cwoud," she mocked, breaking free and becoming flustered that Shikamaru had the presence of mind to have grabbed her weapon-of-choice with his other hand.

"Internal affairs…" he told her quickly. "I'm not going to let another friend down!" he remarked to her curtly. "Especially not for the sins of another generation…" he murmured.

Out of instinct, and long beyond past semantics, Anko merely stayed her seat and extended her left wrist towards Kushina, a delayed black mamba summon already emerging from her palm towards Kushina's heart. _In my world, talking in battle is not a free action._

As the mamba's deployed its fangs to pierce into sweet flesh, Kushina in turn merely drew the Sword of Unquestionable Authority. Whilst the earthen ANBU went into his element to strike from below and the second would come in from the opposite axis; Occam's Razor meets execution should Anko either fail and then fix this renegade kunoichi in place for a hammer-and-anvil burial. Only, that Anko's mamba never struck, only pain as her summon banished itself back into where it was summoned, her palm. She snapped her hands, ready to spring back for immediate option two when she saw Kushina, several hairs astray, looking very much triumphant and deranged with a stray red hair between her lips, pointing right down at the weapon she wielded in her right hand. Anko focused to analyzed its composition and capabilities, and hopefully, discover weaknesses.

"Unified Hidden Villages District Court?" She read on the portfolio, stunned, giving Kushina a look, realization dawning in her eyes. "You got visitation rights?!" she exclaimed unbelievingly, getting an ear-to-ear grin from Kushina.

"Full custody, actually… us refugee widowed kunoichi moms have our rights too you know!" bubbled Kushina her sides astitch with legal lulz.

Anko could only giggle before she sharply exclaimed. "Hot Potato!" as the two ANBU managed to avoid executing the wielder of the Sword of Unquestionable Authority. It was Kushina's turn to be taken aback as Anko commented, "Safe Word! In Love, in Liquidations, it's a must!" The two assassination specialists disappeared as soon as they saw the wax printed seal of the dreaded UHVDC. "How'd you know even the Hokage would have to bow down to them, Uzumaki?" Anko wondered.

"Easy," remarked Kushina casually. "Having a career in peacetime-assassinations would ensure that everybody in ANBU has warrants out ."

In the wood line, the Leaf and Wind ninja stared at the other, Shikamaru settling down on his haunches contemplating what a nuisance a simple farewell to a girl –former foe- he corrected himself, had been. Bemused, Temari slung her fan back onto her back, giving him a conspiratorial look. "I can understand how familiar she seemed to you earlier."

"Do tell?" Shikamaru grunted back, wondering what it was that he missed.

"Uzumaki." She pointed out glibly.

He perked up, his attention diverted. "Still in recovery last I saw him."

She shook her head. "Head out of the clouds, Shikamaru," she carefully chided him. Receiving only a frown, she rolled her eyes. "Didn't hear Anko?" She asked rhetorically, knowing she'd only receive silence. "That Uzumaki," she pointed at Kushina. A snicker escaped her as she knew that the unflappable snark had been caught speechless by what she had observed. "Citing my country's newly-founded and proven friendship," she changed tones, knowing that this time, Shikamaru had nothing to rebut her, verbal or otherwise, "in light of these recent developments, I will monitor this in person to be reported to the new Kazekage." She sauntered up to him and crouched till they were at eye level. "After all, this could prove… troublesome."

End Scene

Omake

Deciding to detach themselves from what would become a spectacle, Shikamaru and Temari opted to return to town before more complications arose at the roadside inn. Looking sidelong at Temari until she glared a prompt to him, Shikamaru ventured, "The UHVDC, do they really have that much power?" Receiving only a terse nod, he prodded. "In your village?"

He almost missed her slipped step, almost. "Notice why my siblings and I arrived so early and frustrated to the Chunin Exams?" He enjoyed watching her fidget. "Wind Country does not have much arable land. Kankuro and Gaara did the math and found a way to produce other cash crops that would raise profit values exponentially."

"What did you grow?" Shikamaru inquired, piqued in how something as simple and mundane as farming began somewhat appealing to him.

"The most wonderful flowers!" Temari gushed, treating him to the fey sight of her performing a pirouette following by a vibrant gait zigzagging across his path. "We sold it in Water and Rock countries as "Purple Sand." He dared not speak, lest the spell should break. "Till those bastards came and destroyed the latest crop of Popp-" she stumbled, "Purple Roses!"

"That's a shame," sympathized Shikamaru, whose ideal plant was the humble blade of grass, who only grew softer as it matured, and in numbers, achieved perfection.

Temari hiccupped and pawed up at the underside of her jaw. "Always next season, and thank Gaara for having more than one gourd." She walked a few meters off the trail, digging her left hand into the ground and grinding away the topsoil onto the palm of her right. "Definitely going to like it here Cloud-boy."

End Omake

Author's Notes:

Timeline is set for post Sasuke Retrieval Arc, ShikaTem's appearance definitely pinning it there unless I can find another incidence after that where Naruto manages to hospitalize himself aga-oh wait, nevermind.

Story Concept: Take "Naruto is not a punk bitch" concept and throw in a catalyst that would make him a very strong character that doesn't have to master a finishing move minutes before the next fateful encounter. Plus, the boy needs a mom. Repeat: the boy needs a mom (or conveniently develop a momma complex later on)

Characterization is kicking my ass right now. Currently purchasing the American mangas used (cheap rules! And I'm still legally supporting the industry… sorta) and eventually I'll nail the speech patterns instead of my fanciful interpretations of idealized characters, till the character development engine of the story gets kicking at least. I can say this is a goal of mine: Infuse characters with more personality moments than Wong Fei Hung attack-callouts.

Naruto being part slapstick, I find it difficult to take away the comedy, though I think that sections .6-.9 of the writing actually became a parody-gag without it meaning to be. Still, I hope to propel the story through drama… not so big on the action, is probably why I took the abbreviated comedy escape as the way out.

As to honorifics and other Japanese terms abound… I'm trying to cut down on those, hence the Ms., Ma'am moments.

My main worry right now is making the badass mom not so badass, but I've already seen a couple of disturbing parallels (and homage of sorts) to "The Bride" of Kill Bill. So please, critical (or complimentary?) comments on my characterizations, particularly Kushina, would be most welcome, ja?

To the 'shippers. Don't hedge any bets yet. Except for the Shikamaru and Temari… I lost control of that one right off the bat

Regarding the Unified Hidden Villages District Court, I think I just found my own running gag. Someone's got to regulate them after all, can't have one clan fleecing people when you could standardize hitman commissions.

Any other types of feedback, hell, everything's welcome.


	2. Scene 01 Curtains Rising

Disclaimer: I do not hold any claims over Masashi Kishimoto's intellectual property. Thanks for bringing us this strange, entertaining series.

Author: Take a pill of Suspension of Disbelief; this is where Episode 135 derails to my storyline.

Also, formatting fixed, and extra content added herein.

**Scene 01: Curtains Rising?**

Swathed in bandages, the cocoon of injury that covered him, Naruto combed still-sore fingers through scruffy saffron spiked hair, feeling chakra-burned dandruff peel off, narrowing vulpine eyes in a grimace of discomfort. _It all hurts,_ he observed, everywhere he touched setting off escalations of pain. _Lets me know I'm alive,_ the recuperating genin reassured himself. More so than ever, through his medical mummification, sensation was sharp, touch was heightened near the level of battle.

Catharsis was becoming a word he came to identify with his current state. Give it his all, he still failed. Falling back on his own curse, he still failed. Beyond his limit, of course he failed. Another wince. Luck would only hold for so long, even against the bold, and in the end, Naruto grudgingly admitted that Sasuke's motivation and abilities had surpassed his own, cursed seal or otherwise.

His immediate sense of caring had cooled into apathy upon apologizing to Sakura. Love Sasuke as a brother, though he might, ulterior motives ran as the sinew to his crusade to redeem the prodigal triad of Team Kakashi. Whether it was to reunite their triumvirate, or even to play the friend who put the happiness of his beloved above his own, it all failed. Corruption, or further motivation, Naruto's emotional paralysis denied him the ability to guess which fueled the attempt more. For the moment, his heart, his will, and his confidence were wept away in vain as he extended his anguish by vowing to continue the quest of redemption. He'd take that step soon enough, for now, he was happy to drop the smiling mask of a happy-go-lucky fox and look within his soul for inference as to what would his next action would be.

Stoically, Naruto had dismissed Sakura and the other visitors from himself. Pending his release, he did not wish to see another soul. Release back into the real world could not soon enough, but for now, physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion demanded a little isolation, reflection, and recuperation away from others that'd interfere with his paced recovery.

**This is hardly like you, Kit**. The other entity that inhabited his body spoke to him.

Sitting up and sidling to recline against the head frame of the hospital bed, Naruto took a breath to clear his vision from how the internal ocean of his psyche stirred from that dormant force inhabiting its depths. _I rushed in last time. The next try is going to have to be more deliberate, and before that, I have to exceed him._

**He spared you last time; the bonds of friendship were severed with that act of mercy.** The Kyubi factually replied. Pray the next time you meet him, that he already achieved his goal or else that same, a mental sneer, friendship would place you on that altar that you laid yourself upon.

_I'd rather die than fail him. Negativity will only-_

**Complete a self-fulfilling prophecy?** Riposted the heeled Nine-Tailed Fox entity. **For a vessel of a being that your darling community of kittens fears will cause its destruction, you're all too eager to break yourself open.**

_Then why have you helped me as much as you did if dying would set you free? _The adolescent shinobu retorted, tired of the patronization, even from a mythical beast's astral essence entwined within his body, and through his soul.

Visualizing the beast in the dank prison he saw it kept in his soul, Naruto could see the hackles of the Kyubi rise in indignation and frustration. **Exactly that mentality of you humans that brought my wrath upon this land in the first place. I am eternal boy, old in the world long before your ancestors learned to warm themselves away and fight off the darkness, and will be older still to see your destructive race pass on when it destroys itself and as much of this planet as much as their greed can sustatin.**

_You didn't answer my question_. Naruto pressed, uncaring of the sealed beast's tirade.

**Perhaps because no matter how disdainful you regard it, I have a bond with you, vessel. I'll have what is owed to me and my fallen in time.** The Kyubi edged its nose to the edge of the sealed gates. **When he gets stronger, you know you will call upon me; pray that your next actions ensure that it does not end in vain after I have given you my favor.**

_Favor? _Naruto scoffed out loud, looking out at a grim cloud that had encroached itself upon the city. _I'll save him without._

The confined kitsune just laughed.** Living with me all these years, boy, do you truly believe me evil?**

Without waiting for a retort, Naruto was roughly brought into focus when the Kyubi dispelled their meeting in the depths of his soul. **Especially, since I only took half of what that damned sealing ritual owed me from you?**

Unable to feel his spiritual symbiote, Naruto was left to ponder the cryptic question left by the Kyubi in its indignation.

**SCENE BREAK**

Annoyance. That was emotion that came foremost to the Fifth Hokage upon receiving the report from the two Anbu detailed to investigate the cause of the approaching saline sprinkle. "Always more questions than answers," Tsunade said, standing in the lobby of the hospital.

"Is that why we remained here?" her assistant asked, slipping a writing tablet back into its pocket in her left sleeve.

"Placing ourselves directly in her path Shizune," Tsunade nodded. "If she is who she claims to be, then there is damn elsewhere that woman would head." Pensively, she brought her akimbo arms up to take a small nip at her left thumb.

Shizune sifted through the reports in her mind. "What would a nin from a land that fell to ruin so long ago have ties to this village?" She frowned, "None of our records indicate hostilities with them for decades. If anything, before disaster fell, our relations were neutral."

"Her name, Shizune," Tsunade supplied. "Konoha would tear this woman apart if she life about whom she is, if she's tied to Orochimaru." A grim smile. "It's a rich gamble…" she trailed off.

"Hokage?"

"Namikaze," Tsunade answered. "Namikaze Kushina."

The Hokage's protégé's eyes lit up, her ever-tense and suspicious eyes shocked out of their usual edgy posture. "I-Impossible!" she gasped. "The wife of the Fourth Hokage, alive?" The thought developed. "Uzumaki Naruto's mother?!" she exclaimed. She shook her head. "Its too unlikely. The timing is just-"

Grimly, Tsunade nodded. "We'll test her when she arrives." Shizune noticed immediately when the Hokage's chakra control fluctuated, opening up her channels, Tsunade's chakra signarute increasing rapidly throughout her body. "I will not allow that Snake to take another child from this village."

_Or one that means so much, Shizune silently reflected._

**SCENE BREAK**

The daughter of the Snake and the woman of the salty rain had made their way to the city. Paying little to the passerby's comments on the curious weather –already dissipating, causing more gossip- they purposely strode towards the infirmary. "Why the rush?" Anko off-handedly remarked to Kushina as they navigate around the light crowd on foot. "The moment the others report your presence in the city, this is going to cause an uproar. Why not wait till you iron things out between you and the council to hash out what's going on?"

The whirlpool nin simply kept walking. "If you're afraid of a little complication, you're free to leave. I can find my way from here."

"So?" Anko asked again, "Why the rush?"

Without stopping, Kushina spoke back. "Too much time has already passed."

The comment elicited a laugh from the fishnet-kunoichi. "Years pass, and now you decide to reappear?"

A half-hearted shrug. "You're not the one I have to explain myself to."

Sighing, Anko stopped at an eatery, sensing that a debate with the cook would be easier than an argument with the woman. "Saving my efforts for the battles that are worth fighting, and winning," she added. "Good luck."

Alone again, Kushina continued on through the city, wondering why as she walked deeper into the forest micropolis, the more the clock in her memories begal to unravel and illuminate, her heartbeat rising in anxiety.

Sitting a lonely vigil on the wing's hallway, a strawberry nin fidgeted with herself, unable to focus on a medical scroll that she had picked up from the staff. Sakura could find little appeal regarding the topic of sanitation and living a clean experience when in the field.

Another door down, the portal opens back into the passageway, waiting terminal for concerned friends of family who awaited their loved one's recovery, and offered prayer.

Placing a smile on her face upon seeing the pearl-eyed maiden, Sakura greeted her. "How's Kiba, Hinata?" she asked, sympathizing with the teammate vigils.

A shy expression graced the Hyuga's façade. "Sleeping," she looked around, "like dogs do best."

_A joke from the wallflower?_ Noticed Sakura, grinning. The grin soured somewhat as she saw the fidgeting in Hinata herself, twiddling her index fingers together, gazing balefully at the shut door of her teammate. Having an idea what the girl was looking for, Sakura spoke to her. "Naruto's pulling through again with idiot recovery, but he wants to be alone."

Sakura didn't miss the crestfallen expression on Hinata's pensive pose. Her stomach rumbling broke the silent vigil. "Want to grab something to eat and come back here?" she asked the other shinobi.

Taking another pensive glance at Naruto's door, Hinata took a sidelong look at Sakura. "Hope everybody else is doing well."

Side by side, the two junior kunoichi began to make their way downstairs to the cafeteria.

**SCENE BREAK**

Approaching the steps to the ubiquitous medical facility, Kushina's sixth sense felt the presence of several unique and prominent signatures. Anxiety being suppresed, she passively probed an aura unfelt for a dozen turning of seaons though intimately familiar as when she first became sick, the first heartbeat, the agony of birth, and finally, the terror and oblivion of how they came to be separated. What was once a trickle, a whisper of life that she bore within her, was swoll, subdued yet turbulent, and intimately closer to her than anyone else in this world. When his chi awoke from an mysterios-though familiar sensation, she drew back into herself and brought her focus out again into the surroundings.

Before she ascended the steps into the hospital, Kushina applied herself to a more immediate concern. A person that radiated such chi passively, a considerale amount, precisely controlled, that had the whirlpool nin been prepared for a confrontation, would have missed. _It feels of this village, but from one I've never met before. _A further study as continued her ascent, passively keying and preparing herself for an inhospitable welcome, _A presence that is aged, one that I should have known then, but the family is unknown._ That the presence was directly tuned to her own, reflecting her own curious study of the unknown entity, caused Kushina to debate whether or not to actively perform jutsu to unleash some of her own abilities.

She paused midstep, then snorted. _Someone to be respected, perhaps not to be feared, especially if..._ she blinked, _she seems to have positioned herself consciously between myself and mine._

Still, Kushina loosed her limbs, rotating her wrists with a languorous swaying of her hips, her neck and her ankles, she purposefully strode and opened the glass entryway and let herself within instantly binding her direct gaze at furious, interrogating eyes from a woman whose attractive, buxom shell hid an aged, sad -and currently agitated- presence. In her peripheral senses she discerned the protective presence of a woman who exuded a poisonous impression, and tertially, the heartbeat of that precious soul several stories above them all.

Three women, a mother, a repentant, and a devotee, in a deadlock introduction.

With a wry grin belying the buildup of palpable tension and thickening chakra, Kushina made a show of wiping off her hands on her sleeves and introducing herself with a nod of the head and a slight bow. "Namikaze Kushina," she began cupidly. "of the fallen Land of Whirpool and," she huskily trailed, "of the Village of the Leaf."

Tsunade dryly nodded, Shizune turning to the staff, who took the silent command and began vacating the floor room. "The Namikaze clan has been extinct for over a generation. Namikaze Kushina is among their ranks missing since the crisis that eliminated their clan-"

"-and most of this village." Kushina rudely interjected, impressed with the effect of her brashness at a woman who seemed used to being the chaotic element in a confrontation. She let out an audible threat. "I was expecting more than a blatant lie from someone seemingly so far up sent to examine and apprehend me."

It was Tsunade's turn to become catty as she let out a deprecating laugh. "We don't believe in being rude to strangers -except those that come up during the worst of times, with the worst of possible identites, with an even worse possible course of action."

Willing walking into the baited trap, Kushina bit back: "A direct heir to the Namikaze clan has lived in this ungrateful, willingly ignorant and hateful social institution to fearful of the wrath of spirits beyond and justice to have eliminated him." Angrily she gesticulated at the ceiling. "You dare tell me the Namikaze clan is extinct?! Imply that I am false. When he bears my maiden name," her voice's pitch rose to an accusing challenge," because you bitter shadows clinging to the past refuse to believe that the vessel of your salvation, from your own Hokage, my husband!" she emphasized, "committed the ultimate sacrifice just so that you can tuck away the stain of your shame below a rock?"

As she manipulated her chakra into a murderous urge, and water visibly began to condense and mist as she drew it from the air to surround herself, she was wary of Tsunade releasing her own focus and giving her a bemused look even as her subordinate took a measured step back into a fighting stance.

"Congratulations," Tsunade warningly told her. "You stand on the precipice of execution on secrets that none outside this village -or outside of that incident- would know. On my authority, you may pass and visit him." She crooked an eyebrow. "A visit, correct?"

Kushina only continued to build the aqueous solution around her, manipulating them into two floating crescents that hovered around her shoulders before she actively reached up and grasped them, giving them more form. "Authority?"

Tsunade laughed. "This is too unlikely to be real."

"I concur," Kushina replied. Tensing, she emphasized. "Explain..."

End Scene

Yay! More content; I apoligize for the faulty formatting. Enjoy the confrontation, or the prelude to it, at least.

Author's Notes: More players are introduced, and I adjusted the dialogue and narration for more dialogue instead of narration to drive the pace of the story. Managed to keep better on track this time around with few tangents, though I expect lulz in the next chapter after this.

Thanks for the support thus far. Thank you, reader critique is a great source as to how my writing is


	3. Scene 02 Lukewarm

Disclaimer: Author does not claim any ownership over Masashi Kishimoto's intellectual property

Author: Here's Round Three (Two, chronologically). The confrontation between Tsunade and Kushina, vignettes with the younger generation of femme fatales. Another note: The last scene's format _has been fixed and new content added_. I went back to it and wrote in a tie-in to this upcoming scene.

Thank you readers for encouraging standards.

**Scene 02: Lukewarm**

Touching one of her blond locks, Tsunade bemusedly observed Kushina's display with wary care. Torn between being concerned at a kunoichi's maternal backlash and the odd fate of a fatal encounter with a woman whom upon reading the profile Tsunade had begun to sympathize with, Tsunade opted for the high road. "Explain?" she scoffed, mindful of the aqeous blade the woman projected, the chakra making them every as integral as the fire-haired woman's own limbs. "Narrow the field before you ask such questions."

Terse, Shizune looked to her for guidance, herself equally privy to the same life-sensitive classified material, but relying on her for interpretation and direction in this situation, where the whirlpool stranger, former-first kunoichi of Konoha had provocated on her own.

"Why make a scene?" Tsunade asked sincerely, turning the conversation, "Why the display if you are not going to attack?"

"I'm not?" Kushina replied playfully, releasing her hold on fluid weapons, allowing the water to dissipate back into the air from spray into mist. "Considering that my family has been all but buried -for all the wrong reasons- who do you think you are to reassure me that my return to this life, this village, this child, would be anything but a confrontation?"

"Once you take the poison you injected into the air, I will assist you." Tsunade groaned as Kushina released the secondary effects of her jutsu. "If you intend to commit suicide to prove a point, I won't stop you, but expect me to truly erase you from all the records, and your son for the worse I believe will grow up without ever even having this second chance to know you." she soberly threatened.

"Go-Hokage," pondered Kushina. A faint vulpine appearance graced her facade. "Daughter of the First, yes?"

"Ah, so the prodigal mystery has secrets of her own," Tsunade parried. "Don't make it difficult to be nice."

"The village has a leader now that can stand against hypocrisy?" Kushina grunted, "of course, the Uchiha clan is extinct, or rather, their numbers are controlled to a manageable level." The fact that the slip jarred Tsunade allowed Kushina to go on. "I'm not saying I trust you, or that I have any way to hold you to your word except as a mother to a leader, the elder of the village," another grin from the frown it elicited, "but I will take a chance."

"Don't act like everything is owed to you," Shizune bit out.

Drawing a glare, Kushina assumed an akimbo pose. "It isn't, but in the limited time I've been back, I've been a very," she emphasized, "very, busy girl. Loving the man fate-bound to be the Fourth kept me bitterly aware that I'd always be the _other woman_ in his life next to his village, but it didn't keep me from becoming one with his world as he made me and his child his world. And you, wallflower of a mouse, should know best how dirty little secrets can change even the most set of minds."

Kushina could only barely complete a blink as within that space of time, Tsunade's temper broke and the Hokage proved her reputation as one of the Sannin, when she flash-strode abreast her left side, and comically, her right finger -with the horrible manicure- Kushina absurdly noticed, the instinct of a nin of a fallen land and the unrestricted age of warfare in which she matured and grew, could manipulate her chakra, and the air once more to combine an aqeuous barrier of chi and chakra that mitigated the full impact the Fifth Hokage could muster with a simple placating poke above her left breast.

The whirlpool kunoichi's heart skipped a beat in the most unromantic way. Muscle memory and reflex forced her to buckle her knees and go down, lest she allow the full force of the inhuman poke to ride through her body as it would have had she allowed the follow-through.

"Courtesy goes a lon-" Tsunade began to say, before the very air around her came alive and the rest of the room suddenly became very dry as the glass on the walls inhaled vapor from the outside, stressing them in a concave manner. A moment later, she released her chakra and the watery hold evaporated into mist not before Kushina countered southpaw, her own central finger flanked by the index and the ring, made their own admonishing poke into her solar plexus. The transfer of force directed the ground beneath each woman to fracture and crumple into a shallow crater.

She grinned at the equal riposte, having a grunt ripped from her lungs, little more, somewhat awed that the ingrate and brash had managed to touch her -on the attack no less.

Silence claimed several frenetic heartbeats between both sides.

Catching her breath and recentering herself, Kushina leaned back with a false look of admiration, sucking in another deep breath from how already echoes of pain were radiating from where one touch had knocked her sixth sense back into her.

"I'm beginning to see the resemblance," Shizune dryly commented from the sideline, herself caught aback by Tsunade's physical outburst to the temper-baiting manner of the Namikaze woman."

Deciding to settle the matter quickly before more unwanted attention came upon a very sensitive situation, the Hokage offered her. "I do too..." she murmured. Looking past the woman as one of the anonymous white masks revealed themselves, "look what you did..."

The whirlpook ninja unapoligitically shrugged.

"I'll take the first step," Tsunade told her plainly. "I owe that boy too much to deny him this, even as caustic as you are," she carefully defined. "Shizune, have one of Naruto's comrades escort Ms. Uzumaki-Namikaze to see her son, then meet me at the elder's council."

That drew surprise from the red-headed nin, "This is..." she drew out, "appreciated."

"The ANBU will be leaving you alone," Tsunade emphasized to the eavesdroppers, then groaned. "Meanwhile, this display has to be explained to that council of geriatrics." She gave her a sober glance. "Enjoy what you have, and know, I'm not for you, but I am for that boy."

"Why?" Kushina asked.

"With everybody's help," Tsunade told her, "he could become the first pre-emptive Hokage since his father. Its up to you whether or not you contribute to his future." With no response forthcoming, she told Shizune as she left. "I believe Sakura is still inside the building, introduce her as a distant relative of his before you leave them."

"Tsunade." Kushina said after her. When the Hokage looked over her shoulder, the whirlpool kunoichi gave her an eerily-familar thumbs-up. "Only the best!" she exclaimed in another haunting parrallel to the boy that had brought her out of retirement and spiritual limbo.

**SCENE BREAK **

Selection. Variety. Temptation. "I love not worrying about weight," boasted Sakura as and Hinata paced the serving line at the hospital, eyeing the various small-portioned viands and entrees. "A bit bland," she commented, underlying her own salivations, "but these medic types trim out all the heavy stuff."

Hinata observed Sakura, surprised at the change of moods the girl had undertaken. Though she considered her a friendly -albeit unfamiliar- acquaintance, Hinata was careful of the girl. Whilst Naruto had lived his life with an iron will that complemented the heart he wore on his shoulder, reserved Hinata was very critical of herself, and projected those same reflections at the boy. And naturally had a negative reaction to anything ill projected at him. Even as a friend, Sakura had built up negative instances with Naruto in spades, giving Hinata an indefinite disposition on the girl.

"Hinata?" Sakura gently chided, causing the pearl-eyed waif to address her directly, a direct confrontation the Hyuga heiress had not aptitude nor fondness.

"I just go by what looks delicious," she murmured. She shrugged bashfully, tapping a finger underneath her left cheekbone for emphasis. "Taking chances, I'm usually pleasantly surprised."

"Trust your blood limit, not your nose," Sakura twisted the saying with a thoughtful quirk of her head. Consciously avoiding the primary courses, the girl strode purposefully over to the dessert section and played the dangerous game of compensating cake with fruit, which Hinata silently was in spectacle of.

Immersed the the selection of confections, bon bons and cakes, Sakura lost track of time and when she finally settled on one of her first options -the Tira Misu- Hinata had already gone around her and finished her own orders. "Three sacks?" Sakura observed, staring the parka-donning violet, "Kiba eats that much."

The girl blushed and Sakura felt a strange discomfort at the parrallel she saw in the reserved wallflower. "Its not just for Kiba and me."

The admission of which caused Sakura to wrangle with a lopsided smile, feeling caught, a little annoyed, more so shamed by someone else from another team being more considerate of her last remaining comrade in Team Kakashi. A shy laugh. "Well, aren't you the flower," teased Sakura, a little put off. It escalated when she noticed that Hinata had already begun making her way back upstairs.

"I..." the shy violet fumbled with her words fingers fidgeting on the banister, "I should get this to Naruto," she blurted out, "-and Kiba! He's still asleep," she continued, the fingers movements almost taking the speed of a jutsu being signed, "Let's eat in Naruto's room."

Extending her stride, the strawberry nin walked hurriedly. _Heel, toe, step. Heel, toe, why do I feel neglectful, step. Heel, toe, I'm caring for him already, why do I feel bad, step_. So the mantra continued as she kept her comments on Hinata's bumbling bashfulness to herself.

**At least you won't have to worry about him chasing after you anymore. **The caricature of her libido spoke to her.

_Its not that! He's too dense to even know when a girl likes him! _Sakura argued in return.

Predictably, this voice could always make her dance, even in her own mind. **So... **it pondered, **why do you seem so crestfallen?**

_Me? _Sakura laughed internally. The idea was preposterous, even if she felt her heart tugging when she dealt with the openly-smitten yet reluctant girl. _So much has happened, and I think I'm growing up faster than I ever wanted to. _

**Nice dodge, **her avatar granted her. **When you feel like being honest with yourself, I'll still be here.**

"Sakura?" Hinata asked her at the landing in the lobby. "Sakura?"

She waved off the faint confusion in the girl's eyes. _I swear, the entire way you act you draw pity. Why is it that being rude to you is like kicking the dog?_ Sakura mentally grumbled to herself. "Daydream, but here I am," she theatrically pirouetted, "back to the land of the living!" she finished with a flourish that ended with a bow that touched her right fingertips to her opposing toes.

"Shizune wanted to speak with you," Hinata explained to her, the girl meekly pointing out the stern -and currently uncomfortable- kunoichi softly murmuring with a very familiar looking stranger. Sakura noticed the deliberate sets of glances Hinata gave her between herself and the unfamiliar person.

_Work?! Already... _Sakura mentally resigned herself. The girl consciously draped carnation bang that draped free away from her forehead and gave Hinata a parting, conspiratorial quip. "I'll see you up at the idiot's room when I'm done with what Shizune has for me." Acting on a feeling, Sakura entered into an emotion-provoking combination. "Take care of him for me until I get back, alright?"

Watching the shy girl choke on a volatile mixture of emotions and hormones, Sakura acknowledged the deal before Hinata could even muster conherent words from reluctant stutters. "Whether that fool says so or not, he does need company..." Sakura soberly began before applying the trap. "But he is tender right now..." she left off before she hurried walked towards the two patiently waiting women, herself feeling conscious as to what they were saying about the scene unfolding in front of their eyes as she obtained one-way payback on a girl who she considered a little too kind for her own good. _Kakashi, you would be proud._

**_End Scene._**

Author's Notes. Chasing the rush of the read right now. I think the text is beginning to flow smoother, and longer now than it has for months. Expect vignette of subscene based scenarios. Simple enough to keep me on track.

Upcoming: Hinata's own POV on the upcoming events, old meets new in prelude to a reunion that could only be awkward.


	4. Scene 03 Standing Still

*~* Standing Still *~*

Finally came to delivering from the Hinata POV. After about two years of story development on the manga side. Oh well, the show goes on.

On a tangent... Jewel, Beyonce, and couple other contemporary angels are the soundtrack I listen to as I write her segments. Its nice to be heartbroken, longing, and wanted all the same time.

I think Hinata is more of a Vanessa Carlton, however. Not to stereotype, but the mood I feel when I listed to them as I plod along the keys and let loose. Its damn hard keeping to Kishimoto's characters... its too lively sometimes. Neon ninjas, come on, but hey, its a fun ride. So, it delivers.

* * *

Finding herself in what was becoming a common vigil, Hinata meditated in her own way: she watched her toes twiddle against each other in a mirror of how she wrung her hands. The anguish that she felt had dulled down to her traditional heartache. All the devotion that she had, all the potential for what could be, and still she stood at the threshold.

Within, was the boy that made her be. The village outcast. So long a pariah, still misunderstood, and she had been there, on the sidelines as she always placed herself. Time after time, from concealment, or hidden in plain view, Hinata viewed the singularity of her existence. His tribulations, his persecution, and his downfall. She wept on the inside, every ill glance, word, and though directed at him she took upon herself, to empathize with this dauntless boy... now an emerging star, burning bright, and as she feared, burning short.

She had been there for his triumphs: as much as life would allow her without taking a direct role in it. Those magical moments she cherished, gems in a transparent treasure box that their peers could see in, despite her denials. If it wasn't her silence that denoted her guilt, it was her flustered, waif reactions to his presence alone. However she tried, he took her breath away. All the inner strength that surrounded her pillar crumbled. The walls enacted fell, conquered, until all she could do is fall. And whenever she found herself in his arms, she only fell harder.

_I want to be strong like father, and kind like mother, _had been her mantra, the stanza that she repeated to herself whenever she advanced. In her very first meeting with him, he embodied her ideals so thoroughly, even in that first defeat that she saw. Naruto fell, but he fell for what he believed was right. It had been her greatest debt, and the greatest gift outside of life that anyone had given her. Some in the clan stood for her as who she was, or what she stood for. Naruto had come in as the stranger and gave her all that he was.

She bit her lip. _Does he even remember that moment? Did I mean anything to him then?_ She realized that she was being selfish. The boy was an elemental force unto himself. If heart had tangible power in the world, this boy would be its master. A shame that the world had only cultivated it to face within himself, and she looked at his dogged attempts for acknowledgment; not even kind words, simply acceptance of him as a human being, a ninja of the leaf.

Some of the tawdrier things she had read, or watched, had tropes upon tropes of love at first sight, or some romantic intro. He had her the moment he stood his ground over her stricken form. And for that the other children had beaten him until her guardian had arrived. Even as gentle a man as he was, her retainer had still shunned him and spirited her away. For all the good that Naruto had done, he had still been treated as taboo, bad luck and stigma; the sins of the village in one avatar.

She rejoiced at being in his class, and saddened as he looked through her, involved in his own antics, pursuing girls as little boys were wont to do: by picking on them and bluntly making their intentions known. Hinata reflected on Sasuke momentarily, the boy that had turned himself from the village in his pursuit of justice. She couldn't hate him, or even dislike him, and she felt for Naruto in his failure to bring his friend home.

For such a self-righteous and self-obsessed boy, she knew this failure had cut into his core.

At school Naruto was the polar opposite of Sasuke, and as the brooding protege had his unwanted harem of hangers-on, Hinata was content to gaze at Naruto from afar. All of the fated meetings, the little brushes, and some kind words, and still Naruto saw only past her.

She winced as she knew the answer. Naruto only saw her when she emerged outside of her shell. The protective walls that allowed her to survive within her aloof and demanding clan, were the same barriers that kept the boy who defined her drive from truly noticing her.

Oh, how she tried. That barrier she hated, passion withheld, and the effect he had on her, only spelled failure. Oh, how she cheered him on through his trials. The outcast, underdog, triumphant. At the Chunin trials, she watched him fight, and keep fighting.

He may never be a great ninja, but a finer warrior? Once a generation, she believed him to be the exemplar. Sasuke may be pure talent. Sakura, spunk. Ino, confidence. Shikamaru, skill. Kiba, passion. Chouji, resiliency. Gaara, power, Neji... Neji... she reflected... whom I could've been, a genius resentful of the world.

To be fair, Naruto had changed him. Though he was deferential, Hinata had rejoiced within at the thawing of their relationship. From how she had risen up and clashed against him, two different sides, one almost unwilling, to something almost resembling kinship. Something not typically found in the Hyuuga clan came the bitter recrimination.

Taking a breath she turned on the balls of her feet. She felt the painted-over grain of the door, and stroked it. The sterile environment of the medical halls did nothing to lift the spirits of those who waited upon their loved ones. He is inside, she told herself. Just a door, and my will turns to water.

A wan smile came upon her lips. Beyond her little daydreams, as innocent as can be, because that's all her libido would allow her, she dreams of the day she would not walk behind Naruto, ever stalking, but beside him. He acknowledges her, and Hinata knew it was all up to her to pull herself up where she aspired to belong.

She was content, she told herself, resenting that fact.

For his efforts to bring his friends home, Naruto was in the same shape he had been the first day that they ever interacted.

Her fingers fidgeted away into one of her personal trademarks. Indecision-no-jutsu.

Holding herself at that precipice, _should I stay or should I go?_

_Maybe I'm afraid because he'll only turn away. Maybe I'm afraid because he can't understand. Maybe I'm afraid because he sees me only when I'm at the edge? _Hinata debated within herself.

_He almost died today, and the rest of the village would only have mourned the prodigy._ That bitter thought shook Hinata. Her small debate had been causing small tremors in her inner vigil, the peace that held her there. Now... it came as a resentful tremor reverberating through her core.

She embraced the darkness, and in diving into it, she found what she wanted, muddling through the emotions she was repressing. _Trying it keep it clear, but I'm losing my head to the twilight._

Fear gripped her. _ You aren't in sight... you aren't in sight._ She sought his light.

Facing herself upon the reflection of her soul, she saw her idol, and pondered. _Do you... want me? _She grimaced. _Like I want you... _came her tender confession.

_Or am I standing still, beneath the darkened sky..._ she stated to Naruto's avatar, a soft accusation.

The latch slipped and she found herself coming through the door, eliciting a startled gasp.

Like the previous times she had come in, always at the tail of someone like the Hokage, Shizune, or Sakura, it was an austere environment. Yet, the silence roared, the EKG monitoring Naruto twilight's own metronome. _Or am I standing still, with the scenery flying by. _Steeping herself in the surreal, she let her body continue on its course, the decision to move forward not completely in her hands anymore.

Her pulse undergoing its own surging rush, she continued inside, not directly approaching the boy, but towards the window. She glanced at him sidelong as she passed the foot of his bed, feeling every bit the intruder, but this time, she drove herself to cross her own boundaries. _Or am I standing still, out of the corner of my eye. _Hinata felt that this boldness on her part was her environment, as most actions in her past had been. _Was that you, that passed me by?_

Her pupils dilated on their own as she brought her awareness back to reality, her breath coming in nerve-wracked gulps. _Between fight and flight is the blind man's sight, _her libido sang, _and the choice that's right, _it accused her.

Mechanically, she pivoted and regarded Naruto as he lay recuperating. She had seen him napping as a matter of tradition in their classes. This wasn't him at rest. This was him broken, and again her heart broke as her confidence sought to make its presence known.

_I feel broken down..._ she gasped, _I feel broken down. _

Addressing him in his sleep, cheating, preparing herself for what she had been hoping for since she had grown behind him, she echoed her libido's words, using her inner flow to guide her plea. "Do you... need me?" she implored of him. "Like I need you." His rhythmic snore only answered. She couldn't even meet his gaze asleep. Staring at her toes again, she asked. "Or am standing still?

"Right now you are," replied a different voice.

Flash-frozen, Hinata's skin rose to a crimson hue, and responded in the manner she always did. She fainted on her feet, no longer standing still, but unconscious prone.

The woman entered the room and held still for only an instant upon seeing Naruto still in repose. Focusing her attention to the present, she addressed the unconscious girl. "Sorry young lady, but that was becoming painful to watch." She sighed theatrically with a knowing smile. "Kids these days," she reflected as she moved forward to collect the stricken Hyuga. "Now what do we do with little Miss Indecisive here."

Gently collecting the collapsed girl from the floor, she moved towards the only bed in the room. "You know, son. This girl's found a way to take precedence over me right now," she clucked.

* * *

Hinata floated within her subconscious, the dream becoming lucid on. Even in her thoughts, she was flustered. Had she really done all those things, she wondered. Taking the time to cherish what had just transpired, she hazily sought to piece together what had just occurred on what had been a stressful day. At least she had said something. Even to an unconscious audience. Pitifully, she wondered if she could move beyond this pre-adolescent angst and tentativeness to something more decisive, more concrete.

But... she began to remember. There was a reply. With that revelation, she stirred to consciousness.

Lavender eyes opened to meet the soft glow of the hospital lighting, something different besides what she expected to be the cool night of her room. The mattress she was on, feeling returning with her awareness, was distinctly different from the firm tatami and futon that was her bedding at home.

Something definitely different was the feeling of a warm form besides her, and a soft snore that stirred turbulence within her with their familiarity.

Curiousity overrode the impending dread and she picked up her head to get a better gaze of her surroundings. That was when she felt his breath.

It wasn't a rolled blanket that she was spooning in her sleep; it was another resting human body.

This was definitely not her room.

And she was undeniably quite awake.

Her synapses fried as they activated. Following true to form, her body seized and she found herself falling back into shock.

As she lay there, frozen, her faculties shutting themselves down, Hinata found herself separated, feeling herself out of her own body.

Her head had laid down on his blanketed chest, the arm that supported herself up slipping to embrace him, and as she lay there paralyzed, she was committing his heartbeat to memory.

Giving up the fight on how to treat this situation, Hinata settled down in her shock. _This feels quite nice,_she realized, her most lurid fantasies -her childish equivalents of them- proving to be poor vision of how this reality felt at this time. _I could get used to this,_she blearily thought, losing consciousness in what felt to be the most torturous, yet delicious, trap she had ever fallen in.

The squeak that she had initially emitted turned into a relieved sigh, and Hinata once again roamed the land of dreams, riding upon the rhythm of the boy that rocked her world.

* * *

Sitting on the windowsill, Kushina herself was at a standstill. The girl had been a welcome distraction from this reunion, but even distractions ran out someday, while she still had to face the issue.

Grateful, however, for the diversion, Kushina debated on her actions thus far. "Girl, you make me feel old," she commented as she strode towards her son's bed. Pulling up a chair besides him, she reached over to stroke his stray bangs over his face, tenderness guiding her hands.

"What other mother would drive a girl into her own son's bed?" she quipped, giggling at the mischief she had caused.

*~* To be continued *~*

*~* Author's Notes *~*

I chose to play it silly in this selection. I got fed up with how tortured this was becoming and decided to let the girl have her break. She deserves it, hell, he does too. This was to be Hinata's first step in changing her role from supporting, to lead.

Kushina's role I chose to downplay as I intended this to be Hinata's chapter. The girl went beyond herself on this one.

As the canon drives ever forward, it doesn't discourage me. If anything, this provides me with more ammunition to drive my split as this story is meant to divert from the true ending of the first half of the series.

To those that have given me encouragement in this story: Thank you. I hope I delivered.


End file.
